Wenn die Wolken Schwarz und Düster Sind
by Nomen Ist Omen
Summary: An exploration of Oskar Schindler's emotions while watching the burning of Jews.


** Wenn die Wolken Schwarz und Düster Sind**

Rating: PG-13

Pairing: None. Seriously, are you surprised?

Character: Oscar Schindler

Disclaimer: Neither the movie nor the character (real character) belong to me.

Author's Notes

Admittedly, writing for this movie is an eccentric and complex thing to do. Firstly, the events described and portrayed, as it is no secret, really did occur. Considering the title, yes I do speak German . This is a serious piece of work, as I do not take World War II lightly (does anybody really). It was painful to write and some of this is based on my thoughts. If you watched the movie, then you should probably know when this fic takes place. .

All sort of criticism accepted.

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Smoke, dust and the smell of burnt ashes still lingered in his nostrils, making him want to vomit. Oskar Schindler had in his childhood days read stories of hell but never had he thought it possible that it could exist here, on Earth. The sky was grey, nearly as if the sun had been swallowed by the fumes of a dragon, and a creepy atmosphere surrounded the place. It was as if the heavens themselves were crying out their grief, their eternal sorrow. Perhaps, the world was really doomed to fall.

Somewhere, nearby the corpses of the poor souls where still being burned. Murdered they had been for a crime that they had never committed. Destined to die for having had a religion that had been considered evil throughout history. Still, it had never been as horrid as it was now.

The deformed faces, dusty body parts were grotesque to look at. It was impossible to believe that these things, awful deformations, had once been human beings, breathing and alive. Watching some of the soldiers removing their clothes and hair, Oskar wondered if they even knew how disgusting all of this was.

Dogs they called them, worthless, conceiving and cowardly bastards, who deserved all of this. Jews were the least important of all, they were_Untermenschen, _ an humankind that had to be destroyed, wiped away from the sight of the Earth. Insects to be squashed without mercy, being led to their deaths like cows to the slaughtering houses. Just because a man had said so, claiming himself to be all knowing. In a short period, a single man had managed to evoke such feelings of hatred in a nation, provoked them to show the worst signs of inhumanity in a second war. A war, that had been mainly his doing.

All Jews had to be destroyed. It did not matter if they were only brittle children or old trembling men with a wise look in their eyes. This made no difference at all. After all, they were evil's spawn, no matter how common and harmless they were.

Surely, it was wrong, to blame a single man for all of this. He had only been their inspiration, a manipulator in a dark and hopeless time. Hope he had given a nation, that had lost so much after the first war. For every man decided for himself, knowing, or should at least, when he crossed a line.

Yet some of them were victims too because some of them did not know that Hitler was insane. A sardonic man, who was interested solely in expanding his area at any cost. Surely, one day, he would even go as far as sacrificing the blood of his own nation to make his desires come true.

Oscar felt sorry for the children, who grew up in this society and believed all of these lies. One day, they would have to come to the realization that all of this was fatal. A mistake, a deadly one like poison in a snake's mouth. They would have to be haunted by this memory forever.

Cringing at that thought, he could not understand, did not even want to, how the men could be so aloof about that. Seeing the laughing general, he wanted to run, scream and tell him that he was a fiend, a man without a heart, without a soul. If such a thing could at exist. For every man did possess a conscience and a soul.

Yet, according to rumours, this was not even the worst yet .Still he had not seen, not experienced the real torment in other places like Auschwitz. There he had heard, that men, children and women were forced to run naked like wild beasts, and sent to suffocate unknowingly in a gas chamber.

Before that, hundreds of them would be crammed in a train, where there was no place to sit or rest. All of them would be squashed against one another, smelling the sweat of fear on each other's faces. No sunlight, no idea of the destination and the seemingly never ending noise of the train driving them slowly crazy. Children crying, women praying for the mercy of God and old people dying in a wagon filled with more than thirty people. The smell of urine, everywhere and the dirt, dead bodies lying around between the feet or next to the living.

Suddenly Oskar had to stop or would have broken down immediately. It was too painful to think about.

Wanting to curse all responsible, he had to restrain himself, even if cost all of his strength. There was nothing he could do, or he would be convicted as a traitor himself. In such a situation, he would not help anybody at all. Like that, he would not be even able to save his own soul.

Yet something in Oskar had changed, shifted and stirred meaningful emotions in him. There had to be something he could do, to change the situation. If he could at least save one life, that would be worth a million. For every life was precious. He had money and a company, there had to be something he could do.

It could not be, there was no way that Jews, should suffer that much. Nobody should suffer like that. This war was pointless, a downfall of human nature. Nothing more, nothing less. One day, he was sure, history would write and criticise all of their, his, actions and people would shake their heads. Feel the same pain, the same helplessness, he experienced because he was not able to do a single thing to atone for all of those peoples' deaths.

Anyways, he would try to be different. Try to make a change for the sake of the future. He was tired of watching.

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End file.
